TNI 2.2.0 (1438): Scan scheduler

Greetings! The change list is short this time, but check it out:

The “list” kind of looks like a cigarette, but remember: smoking kills…
Yeah, I’d rather tell you all about the new Big Feature.

Creating and scheduling a task list

Yes, the Scheduler operates on saved task lists.

To create these, you first add some tasks to the scanner, set them up (i.e. discover nodes within ranges, enter logins and passwords, etc) and then you click Save current tasks button on the sidebar.

The result is what you see in the figure here. Each task list is saved to a separate file, named and fully prepared for launch at any time.

But until now you could only launch them by hand.
Enter Scan Scheduler!

Move your cursor over a task list to see the Schedule this task command and click it.

This opens up the Scheduler page. You can access it at any time: it waits for you in the Options window.

The scheduled task is already created for the task list you clicked earlier.
Now you want to tell TNI when and how often you need this task executed:

• Once. Just tell TNI when.
  
• Daily. Every day at specific time. Or once every N days.
  
• Weekly. On specific weekdays every N^th week.
  
• Monthly. This is a very flexible mode. For example, here we’ve set it up to run the task every second month on the first and last days of the month and also on the second Fridays of these months.
  
  A more life-like set-up, e.g. “first Monday of every month”, will work just fine, too.

For each mode you should also specify the starting date and the time of day. While you’re setting up a task, you can see the Next run label constantly updating, so that you could be sure you’ve done everything right.

Scheduler operation

For now, the Scheduler can only execute a task successfully if, when the time comes:

1. TNI is running.
2. The scanner is not being used.

These are the limitations, but we’re busy lifting them.

If something stops the scheduled scan from running on time, you will know about it from the Run log. Every task has a separate log where you can find all the details: how many nodes were scanned, how many errors were encountered, whether a run was skipped and if so, why. Also, full scan logs are saved for each successful run.

I could go on and on about how useful and convenient the new Scheduler is, but you can find it out yourself by downloading the new version of TNI.

To wrap it up, I’ll just mention the two new versions of our site: Turkish and Polish.

See you in the next post!